Sepia-toned photograph of two men and two oxen ploughing a paddy in central Madagascar.
Rice has been the staple food of Madagascar for many centuries. Many Madagascan families eat rice as the main part of three meals per day. Other foods are often merely a ‘garnish’ or ‘sauce’ for the rice, as Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. So muich so, that my guide in Madagascar said that if a family has no rice, they will often say they have ‘no food in the house’, even if there are small amounts of other food available.
Only 10% of Madagascar’s original rainforest remains, because of a long-standing tradition of slash-and-burn agriculture, but nowadays the Madagascar Method, or System of Rice Intensification, means that Malagasy farmers are growing rice by using intermittent wetting and drying of paddies rather than the traditional continous flooding method which uses water intensively. SRI uses less water, less land preparation and less fertilizer, thus is far more sustainable than the traditional method.
This photo is copyright © Liz Leyden, all rights strictly as agreed in writing with the author or her agent.
It is available as various types of wall art, and as home and personal accessories, from my gallery at Pixels.com.
My original, from which this image is derived, is available to license as a stock photo from my portfolio at Alamy.
